GPs and nutrition: what they want and how they want it. A GP nutrition education project.

The aim of this project was to improve general practitioners' (GPs) ability to manage the nutritional care of their patients through cooperation with a dietitian. The project was developed, implemented and evaluated by the project dietitian in collaboration with 80 GPs who were members of the Ipswich and West Moreton Division of General Practice in Queensland during 1996. As part of the project, a manual with accurate, up-to-date nutrition information and patient education resources was developed. The project dietitian personally delivered the nutrition resource manual to GPs, and also presented brief behaviour modification strategies suitable for use in the general practice setting. One follow-up visit was conducted during the project. Behaviour modification strategies were revisited at the follow-up session. A questionnaire was administered soon after the initial visit and again at six months and 45 GPs completed both questionnaires. Six months after the first visit, GPs reported improved confidence in their ability to provide specific nutrition information (7^ = 0.004) and to recommend specific dietary changes (P = 0.02), as well as reporting an increase in the use of patient education material (P = 0.001). Further evaluation is required to determine whether the use of a purpose-written nutrition manual, and employment of a dietitian as a professional representative, has an impact on long-term nutrition counselling in the general practice setting. However, the full project already has been implemented in a rural division of general practice and another division has purchased the resource manual